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This is my first time entering this website�.it took me a while to figure out how to get this far! It saddens me that this is my entry to this forum as I had been anticipating entering this site on a good note.
A question was stirred as to whether my stamp set was a rip-off of a more well known brand of stamps. It seems this was a direct implication of me copying their stamps. Something I strive not to do. The one seemingly in question the most is one of the labels with the dotted spots. I have a very popular stamp set that I have been selling for two years, Lots of Spots. This label was meant to coordinate with the Lots of Spots set. Yes, very coincidental, but that is where I got the inspiration, to clear up that question.
In the same thread, other stamps of mine were brought into question as being similar to other stamp companies� stamps in this ever saturated industry. I haven't seen a stamp company yet that doesn't have something similar to another company, but the ones that are similar are still different. True artists aren't sitting in a closed room 24/7 designing.
I was given a basic concept by one of my design team members for this set and I flew with that. She had taken my Boo To You Set and made a Halloween Sample with it using the little nuggets. While at a show, a customer asked for a set with all the seasons included�thus, the concept for You�re So Sweet was born. While I am not guilty of purposefully duplicating, no matter how coincidental and miraculous my stamp set and PaperTreys stamp set appear similar, I have decided to modify my design upon my next restocking of You�re So Sweet, since PaperTreys set was in fact released prior to mine.
I hope this clears up any questions within you on the integrity of my products. In the future, I sincerely hope I would be contacted directly, should anyone have any doubt in their minds regarding the originality of any new stamp sets I release.
Thank you SCS community.
I also want to say on this Thanksgiving Day how thankful I am for those of you who defended me without even knowing me. Especially, GinaK as she understands the whole process. You will never know how much that meant to me. Thank you to all of the wonderful people that took their time to send me emails encouraging me!
I'm glad you decided to come to SCS to discuss this Lori, but I'm also sad that you had to. You have a wonderful line of products and you shouldn't feel the need to "defend" them. If anything, I hope this situation has generated more traffic to your site.
Welcome to split coast!
I'm sorry you feel like you have to change your stamp designs. and your right there are similar sets in ALL the company's stamp lines. None of the designers live in caves is my guess and inspiration is really everywhere.
Good Luck to you!
I'm glad you came back and posted Lori, but like Babsnelson said.... it's sad you had to defend yourself at all. While I can understand some people would be curious at the similarities... I think if they had concerns they should have e-mailed you directly.
I hope you won't stay away from SCS.... it's a great place with sooooooo many wonderful, talented and generous women.
I hope the outcome of this is that you get more customers than you know what to do with. Like I said in the other thread... I had never heard of CD until yesterday and I now have a shopping list a mile long! I can't wait til the holidays are over.
Have a very Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving. That goes for everyone here at SCS.
I think it is a shame that someone questioned the originality of your set. With so many companies out there, similiarities are bound to happen. It all comes down to if someone likes your product, we buy it! I have bought from both companies, and the quality is excellant. If you restrict yourself to brand loyalty, that narrows your choice dramatically. Look how many companies have come out with sets that have flourishes. You have done nothing wrong, keep coming out with the great products
Nice to see you here I've been a customer for a couple years and I always love seeing your new sets every month. I ordered both PTI's and the clear dollar stamp sets. I would order A Chemistry with Paper's set too if they would ship to Canada! The sets aren't that similar.
Welcome Lori..i too will be placing an order with you in the future. I'm glad i discovered your site via here. I think you are a lovely lady who shouldn't have had to come here to defend yourself. Keep up the good work..loves ya
__________________ Gail
When the world says give up, hope whispers, try one more time.
I have bought your stamps before seeing your new ones! Don't change anything! You have great products, great designs and I will continue to buy from you!
__________________ Karen
...My life is like a stroll on the beach...As near to the edge as I can go...Thoreau...
Welcome to the forums! I know this was not how you envisioned getting involved in SCS. I look forward to seeing you here more often. And you can come here to let us know about your new releases!
Welcome to SCS, Lori. I'm sure your business will boom now!! ;) If nothing else, you can certainly take a positive spin and know that this was a lot of free advertising for you. I'm sorry your first post needed to be a "defend yourself" kind of post. Please take a look around here. There is so so so much to see. There is a lot more positive than negative here!
C
__________________ "We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin
Another big welcome!! And another potential customer who is happy to have found your products - there is room for everyone in this big ole stamping world
And you can come here to let us know about your new releases!
Just to clear something up... actually, I don't think she can without being a member company or without paying for advertising. Others, not affiliated with her company may, however.
__________________ "We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin
Because of the thread posted I have now found your website. I love your stampsets and will be ordering from you as well as continuing to order from Papertrey. As someone stated, with all the new stamp companies it is bound to happen that some of the sets will be similar. I'm just glad that I have a variety of companies and stamp sets to choose from. We have come a long way from when I first started stamping back in 1993.
Welcome Lori.
I have purchased from you in the past and know that you sell a wonderful, quality stamp.
I also have more sets on order.
I have been stamping many years and have come across similar stamps on many of the sites I buy from. It does not matter to me at all. If I love it, I will buy it.
I don't think you should change your stamps. Keep them just like they are--great quality, great designs, and great service for them.
I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and the very best on your wonderful stamp company.
Yeah Lori! GO GO GO! I'm glad you posted. My "Exegesis" $10 word was a real hoot last night on the other thread! LOL At least you and I both know, as does Lori Craig at Split Coast, that you had already considered advertising at SCS since we had already contacted them several weeks ago to get pricing. I've found through yesterday's thread that there ARE a lot of cool people here. Hang in there!
I too am glad that you posted. I would have never found your site otherwise..I saw the other thread, and didn't read any of it ... LOL I actually googled your business to find your site lol.
Anyway, I've already blown my budget for this month and probably next lol, but I can assure you that I will be coming back to your site, and referring my friends too...I like your stamps and the prices too...very affordable! Please don't change your stamps, I like your style...
I'm sorry you had so much drama regarding your stamps. Yours were some of, if not THE first clear stamps I ever bought about a year ago and I'm placing another order today. I was also sorry that you felt the need to explain yourself on your own website.
I'm sure those people who were most vocal in questioning the originality of your designs did so out of loyalty to and concern for Papertrey Ink, not an intent to cause personal distress. This just goes to show what can happen when passions run high.
The silver lining in all this is it seems you have garnered even more business from the exposure. I know I was excited to see what was new since my last visit to your site! It's great that the market is large enough and the papercraft addiction strong enough to allow for multiple variations on a theme.
Just to clear something up... actually, I don't think she can without being a member company or without paying for advertising. Others, not affiliated with her company may, however.
Thanks for the clarification. Then we can look forward to her design team postings, right?
Thanks for the clarification. Then we can look forward to her design team postings, right?
I'm going to ask the experts. I *THINK* posting gallery creations is ok. I *THINK* promoting in forums is not. Customers can promote as in "hey, check out the awesome sale at X" Design team members (I *THINK*) cannot promote as in "check out the upcoming special at X website/retail location.
I've asked for clarification, and I'll send this to Lori (stamp_momma) as well.
Basically, if one benefits from the sales of a product, he/she cannot promote it here. Whether this includes DT members or not is not clear to me. I'll ask a site administrator to post here for clarification. (I'm just the Bulk Buy and Divine Secret Siblings moderator! LOL)
In any case, I'm all over those volleyball stamps!! I've got a DD who plays HS v-ball, and SU! doesn't have any stamps specific to this sport. I feel an order coming on before the turkey goes in the fryer! ;)
__________________ "We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin
I LOVE Clear Dollar Stamps!! I have been purchasing these stamps for over 18 months; I found their products on Ebay and then began buying from the website. Lori has always had wonderful service. I always go to her website the beginning of each month to check out the new stamp sets.
I'm going to ask the experts. I *THINK* posting gallery creations is ok. I *THINK* promoting in forums is not. Customers can promote as in "hey, check out the awesome sale at X" Design team members (I *THINK*) cannot promote as in "check out the upcoming special at X website/retail location.
I've asked for clarification, and I'll send this to Lori (stamp_momma) as well.
Basically, if one benefits from the sales of a product, he/she cannot promote it here. Whether this includes DT members or not is not clear to me. I'll ask a site administrator to post here for clarification. (I'm just the Bulk Buy and Divine Secret Siblings moderator! LOL)
I think you're right. I'm not sure if it applies to her DT either, but just to be safe, I have tried not to say anything in any forum like that. I only upload samples to my gallery an simply mention what stamps were used and then list the website link. Which, I believe is within the rules. So far, none of my gallery uploads have been deleted by an admin, so I think I must be following rules. Those moderators are really on the ball on things like that, because once I DID mess up and said something too advertise-ish and was deleted promptly. BTW, that was AGES ago and not about CDS.
I'm going to ask the experts. I *THINK* posting gallery creations is ok. I *THINK* promoting in forums is not. Customers can promote as in "hey, check out the awesome sale at X" Design team members (I *THINK*) cannot promote as in "check out the upcoming special at X website/retail location.
I've asked for clarification, and I'll send this to Lori (stamp_momma) as well.
Basically, if one benefits from the sales of a product, he/she cannot promote it here. Whether this includes DT members or not is not clear to me. I'll ask a site administrator to post here for clarification. (I'm just the Bulk Buy and Divine Secret Siblings moderator! LOL)
In any case, I'm all over those volleyball stamps!! I've got a DD who plays HS v-ball, and SU! doesn't have any stamps specific to this sport. I feel an order coming on before the turkey goes in the fryer! ;)
Christine-
You're right......DT members can not post promotional posts here on SCS because it would be benefiting the company without them paying for advertising.
I'm on two design teams. One I can post about freely, but only in their forum because they're a paying member company. The other one, I can't because the company doesn't have a forum of their own here. Yes, they advertise, but that doesn't give me liberties to post freely in the forums.
Those of us on DTs benefit from the sales of a company because it keeps them in business and keeps up on the teams. We can post our creations in the galleries, but we can't start threads in the general forums or post promotional type of comments in other threads started by other people, even if they're not affiliated with the company.
Happy customers can, however, post anything they like about the companies on the general forums.
__________________ Erika Martin * Vermont * SU! Demo * My blog: Stampin' Mama
I think you're right. I'm not sure if it applies to her DT either, but just to be safe, I have tried not to say anything in any forum like that. I only upload samples to my gallery an simply mention what stamps were used and then list the website link. Which, I believe is within the rules. So far, none of my gallery uploads have been deleted by an admin, so I think I must be following rules. Those moderators are really on the ball on things like that, because once I DID mess up and said something too advertise-ish and was deleted promptly. BTW, that was AGES ago and not about CDS.
Yup, you're within the rules, Laurie. Those of us on DTs can simply put where the stamps come from in our gallery uploads, but anything other than that (promotional talk) is not allowed.
__________________ Erika Martin * Vermont * SU! Demo * My blog: Stampin' Mama
I just went back into my sent folder to find an email that I sent out to members of a new design team I'm on when asked about what we can and can't post to SCS.
Here's what I wrote to them:
As design team members, we can't solicit business for the companies we design for by starting threads on the forums. SCS is paid for by advertising and Fan Club revenue. If companies are being advertised by their designers, or the owners of the companies themselves on the general forums, SCS is basically giving away advertising for free by allowing it. Let's face it. There are a LOT of members on SCS that are using the service for free. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's just reality. SCS takes a LOT of money to keep up and running and uses a group of volunteers as their moderators to keep running costs down. If companies or their designers were allowed to freely start threads on the site, none of these companies would be advertising. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, so to speak.
On the other hand, SU gets a TON of exposure on SCS from demos mentioning promotions, specials, etc. Threads are started by customers and avid SU fans. SU doesn't pay ANYTHING for this promotion and they reap the benefits like you wouldn't believe. SCS is a HUGE boost for SU revenue and they get all their advertising for free there.
This is why the Member Company Forums were created. The owners of these companies felt tied in that they were paying a good amount of advertising money on banner ads and sponsoring the Weekly newsletters yet their hands were tied when it came to actively engaging in conversations about their products even when the thread was started by someone not connected with the company. Yet SU paid nothing at all and got tons of exposure and people were allowed to converse freely on the forums, including demos.
The Member Companies are not getting those forums for free, though. They're paying a good amount of money for them, but in exchange, they have their own gallery and they're allowed to freely say what they like there.
So...........to get to the point.....there are stamp companies that are NOT member companies and to have design team members start threads directly, it would be soliciting for a company that we design for and would, in essence, create free advertising for these companies. Why would these non-member companies need to purchase banner ads if all of us could just start creating threads all over the forums? See what I mean?
We can answer questions directly in the forums, but it can't be started by us. We also need to make sure that we're not actively soliciting business or actively trying to promote and sell the product when we answer the questions.
hope this helps.
__________________ Erika Martin * Vermont * SU! Demo * My blog: Stampin' Mama
What about if someone was looking for a sneaker stamp and started a thread, and I responded that I saw one at "X" website, even though that website was the one I am a design team member for? That is allowed, no? thanks!
What about if someone was looking for a sneaker stamp and started a thread, and I responded that I saw one at "X" website, even though that website was the one I am a design team member for? That is allowed, no? thanks!
Yes, you can respond to threads/questions and mention products from companies for which you design. What you can't do is start a thread and say something like... "Hey! CDS has this awesome new sneaker stamp. It is to die for!" (if it is my DD's v-ball sneaker, then it really is to die for! ;))
__________________ "We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are." Anais Nin
What about if someone was looking for a sneaker stamp and started a thread, and I responded that I saw one at "X" website, even though that website was the one I am a design team member for? That is allowed, no? thanks!
Ya know......I'm not sure on that one. I stay away from any of those types of posts if I know that the companies I'm designing for carry those stamps because I don't want to actively promote sales for one of those companies. I feel bad about it in some way because if I know that I would want help finding something if I really wanted something specific. But at the same time, I think it still qualifies as trafficking business to a company I'm affiliated with.
I've just steered clear as the distinction seems pretty cut and dry. Perhaps a mod could clarify that for us better.
I think it's one thing if someone asked "I found a shoe stamp at such and such a store. Are they a reputable company?" We could answer that with a clear conscious if we design for them.
But the other..........I dunno. It still seems like trafficking business in one direction.....specifically the company we design for.
__________________ Erika Martin * Vermont * SU! Demo * My blog: Stampin' Mama
Clearing Clear Dollar Stamps
